A continued, prolonged power struggle between Nicolas Maduro and the Juan Guaido-led opposition party in Venezuela may leave the effectiveness of U.S. sanctions in doubt, said Elizabeth Rosenberg, a former senior sanctions adviser at the Treasury Department.

South Korea and Japan are still far apart in consultations over their trade dispute and don’t expect the U.S. to meditate negotiations, South Korea said.

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a general license to allow certain transactions with COSCO Shipping Tanker (Dalian) Co. -- a subsidiary of COSCO Shipping Corporation -- until Dec. 20, OFAC said in an Oct. 24 notice. General License K allows transactions that are necessary to the “maintenance or wind down” of transactions with COSCO Shipping Tanker (Dalian) and any entity it owns by more than 50 percent. The license does not authorize transactions with COSCO Shipping Tanker (Dalian) Seaman and Ship Management Co.

The Trump administration removed sanctions against Turkey it had imposed just one week earlier, drawing criticism and warnings from some Congress members of future sanctions if Turkey does not end military operations in Syria.

Venezuela’s oil production will continue to drastically decline in 2020 if Nicolas Maduro stays in power, potentially crippling future Venezuelan oil trade, said Alejandro Grisanti, director of the ad hoc board for Petroleos de Venezuela set up by opposition party leader Juan Guaido. Speaking during an Oct. 22 Atlantic Council panel, Grisanti said Venezuela’s oil production will fall to 450,000 barrels per day in 2020 if Maduro stays in power. The country’s oil production has fallen from 1.5 million to about 750,000 barrels per day this year due to U.S. sanctions, Grisanti said.

Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for Oct. 15-18 in case they were missed.

The United Kingdom Parliament on Oct. 22 voted to approve the broad outlines of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s new transition deal for exiting the United Kingdom. The 329-299 vote on the implementation bill’s “second reading” in Parliament would normally move the bill forward to a detailed examination of the bill at committee stage and then a final vote on the “third reading,” though U.K. lawmakers in a second vote rejected Johnson’s proposed three-day timetable for considering the bill and a new schedule has yet to be proposed, according to a report from the BBC.

The Commerce Department has received more than 200 Huawei-related license requests since the Chinese technology company was added to the agency’s Entity List, a Commerce spokesperson said. The agency is still reviewing the applications. “Given the complexity of the matter, the interagency process is ongoing to ensure we correctly identified which licenses were safe to approve,” the spokesperson said.

Companies are concerned about the “heavy-handed use” of export controls and sanctions by the Trump administration, which could lead to a less interconnected global trade order, said Babak Hoghooghi, a trade lawyer specializing in sanctions and export controls at Berliner Corcoran. Hoghooghi, speaking during an Oct. 18 panel hosted by American University's Administrative Law Review. He said the U.S.’s “overuse” of sanctions prompts other countries to consider decoupling from global economies and seek long-term workarounds to U.S. policies. Other trade experts have warned of similar consequences (see 1908010020). “I would venture to say that this process has already begun,” Hoghooghi said.

The EU will apply its own tariffs to U.S. products, Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmstrom said in a news release. "“We regret the choice of the U.S. to move ahead with tariffs," she said. "This step leaves us no alternative but to follow through in due course with our own tariffs in the Boeing case, where the U.S. has been found in breach of WTO rules."